Month: August 2017

Totality
My brother Ken and I took a short trip last week to hopefully see the total eclipse of the sun. The decision was made only a few days before during a conversation with our good friend Rick Seidman, CEO of one of our most favorite vendors, Quoizel Lighting. Rick was inviting us to Charleston to see his operation sometime in the next few months. A little light (no pun intended) went off above my head and I said, “Charleston, huh. You’re in the path of totality, right?”
Fast forward and we were the very happy guests of Rick and his wonderful wife Karen. We toured the factory, had meaningful conversations about our changing industry and our dynamic 50 year partnership. At about 1:00 pm, we boarded the small boat of his friend, Captain Dave, who piloted our craft only a few hundred yards from the aircraft carrier Yorktown.
I knew that the difference between seeing a partial eclipse, even one that is 99% total, and seeing the total eclipse is vast. One can be fascinating, but the other was said to be remarkable.
It’s similar to the difference one degree makes when heating water. As the motivational speaker, S.L. Parker, says, “water at 211 degrees is hot, but water at 212 boils. And with boiling water comes steam, and with steam, you can power a train.”
That extra degree to make water boil, that extra percent to get to totality, makes all the difference.
As the great event neared, the weather was not cooperating at all. There were powerful storms complete with long bolts of lightning and booming thunder all around. There were patches of light blue, but mostly the sky was thick with clouds.
With our eclipse glasses on, we could intermittently see the sun being slowly swallowed up by the moon. Bit by bit, it was disappearing and that was cool. When the sun was completely covered by the moon, we saw nothing, just clouds. We figured, well that was that. I was, of course, disappointed there may be nothing more, but was content with what we did see and that we had made the call to go. When deciding whether or not to do something that will require some effort or take the easy way out, I hear in my head the Lee Ann Womack song, “when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”
So I was consoling myself that the gray sky had obscured the corona’s appearance and I’d just have to be happy with just really hot water when I looked up and saw it.
A ring of fire in the sky. I yelped in surprise and delight at one of the most amazing natural spectacles ever seen on planet Earth. I settled in to watch with jaw dropped wonder. A pulsing crown of flame made possible by the improbable confluence of a moon 400 times smaller than a sun 400 times further away.
I was in awe. I was John Snow reaching my hand out to touch the face of a dragon.
OK, I’m a bit of a nerd, noted, but it was truly magical.
The moon and sun made the music and I joyously danced to their short, but incredible, sweet song.